Cafe de Pieper has run on the corner of Prinsengracht and Leidsegracht since 1665, with worn floorboards, a low brown-beamed ceiling, stained-glass windows and a tiny canal-side terrace that catches the late afternoon sun.
Tip: Front room is standing only, back room has a few small tables. Cash bar; closes earlier than the late-night strip but the room peaks at 23:00.
Address: Prinsengracht 424, 1016 JC Amsterdam
Cafe de Kuil runs out of an old building on Oudebrugsteeg near Damrak with brown ceiling beams, a long bar along one wall and a small smoking room, opening early and running through to the late-night hours seven days a week.
Tip: Cash bar; the smoking room out the back is small and busy on weekends. Walk five minutes from Centraal Station.
Cafe Belgique on Gravenstraat behind the Nieuwe Kerk is a small wood-panelled beer bar with eight Belgian taps and another fifty bottles, regularly listed among the city's best beer rooms and busy two-deep on weekends.
Tip: Tiny room, no reservations; the lone table out front opens up after the dinner crowd thins. Cash and card both fine.
Cafe Sonneveld stands on the corner of Egelantiersgracht and Tweede Egelantiersdwarsstraat in the Jordaan with a sunny canal-side terrace looking toward the Westerkerk, serving genever, kopstoot beers and Dutch comfort food late into the evening.
Tip: Terrace fills the moment the sun hits it; the kitchen runs until close with kroketten and burgers. Cash card preferred.
Cafe de Pels has run as a neighbourhood brown bar on Huidenstraat in the Nine Streets for more than fifty years, a long-standing meeting room for journalists and artists with veal croquettes in the fryer and one of the better canal-belt terraces.
Tip: Open from 09:00, so the morning crowd folds into the late-night crowd without ever clearing. Friday and Saturday push to 02:00.
Vrankrijk has held its Spuistraat building since it was squatted in 1982 and now runs as a legalised social centre with a ground-floor events space mostly given over to punk shows, queer parties and benefit nights through the week.
Tip: Cheap drinks, donation door, cash only. The mural-covered facade is the surest way to spot the door from the street.
Shelter sits in the basement underneath the A'DAM Tower on Overhoeksplein in Amsterdam Noord and runs a 24-hour licence, programming house and techno with room for disco and unconventional electronica on its main floor.
Tip: Take the free GVB ferry from Centraal across the IJ; queues thin out after 02:00 and the room peaks toward dawn. Capacity is roughly 700; ID checked at the door.